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Description based on: Mar. 5, 1889.

Latest issue consulted: Vol. 46, no. 4 (Dec. 30, 1905).

The Pensacola (FL) Daily News began publishing sometime in 1889. The earliest verified edition was published on March 5, 1889. The Daily News predates the Pensacola (FL) Journal [LCCN: sn87062268], which published between 1898 and 1985. The two newspapers competed for like-minded readership. The editors of the Daily News pledged to "be Democratic, conservative but yet sufficiently aggressive to give weight to [the Daily News'] remarks." The Pensacola (FL) Daily News [LCCN sn96027213] was continued in the mid-to-late 1900's by the Pensacola (FL) Evening News [LCCN sn96027212]. The exact year of this transition is uncertain as the Pensacola Evening News continued the numbering of the Daily News. The earliest verified edition of the Pensacola Evening News dates from April 6, 1908. The Pensacola Evening News was then continued, sometime between 1909 and 1924, by the Pensacola (FL) News [LCCN 88074707], again exact dates are unknown. In March 1897, the Daily News had a circulation of 1,500 and the Pensacola Journal, begun as a weekly, offered little competition at first. The Pensacola News merged operations with the Pensacola Journal in 1924, when John H. Perry, the Pensacola Journal's owner, bought the Pensacola News. John Perry, a native of Kentucky, arrived in Pensacola in 1922, purchasing the Pensacola Journal sometime shortly thereafter. For the next six decades, the Pensacola Journal continued to appear mornings and the Pensacola News evenings. Both newspapers remained extremely competitive for readership. A combined Sunday edition published as the Pensacola (FL) News Journal [LCCN sn00059018] also became available. A consolidated newspaper, also known as the Pensacola (FL) News Journal [LCCN sn87062269] continued operations beginning June 3, 1985. This daily continues to this day (ca. 2008). Pensacola, Florida is the seat of government for Escambia County (FL), the westernmost city in the westernmost county of Florida. The city sits on Pensacola Bay, connecting to the Gulf of Mexico. Since the early colonial period, Pensacola had been an important naval port and economic center. By 1889, the city was one of Florida's four largest cities. The city was first electrified in 1888, one year before the Daily News began publishing. And by 1890, one year after the Daily News began publishing, Pensacola numbered 11,750 souls, ten thousand of whom (some may actually have been visitors from out of town) attended the June 17, 1891 dedication of the Confederate Monument in Pensacola's Lee Square and would have read about the event in the Daily News that day and in the days following. In 1893, Pensacola's busier streets were paved for the first time; vitrified brick manufactured by the Tennessee Brick Company had been shipped in by rail. The big news of 1898 was the beginning of the Spanish American War. Pensacola's Gulf Coast port, like others in Florida, hosted forces bound for Cuba, among them Teddy Roosevelt who passed through Pensacola on his way to Cuba through Tampa. Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, Pensacola experienced tremendous growth. By 1900, Pensacola had grown to 17,747 citizens and it increased another thirty percent by 1910 to 22,982 citizens. During the decade, following the Spanish American War, the United States of America secured the peace it had won over the Spanish in the Caribbean through naval patrols and maneuvers based out of Pensacola. The Pensacola News Journal [LCCN sn87062269] cites the Pensacola Journal as beginning in 1897 (Cf, "History of the Pensacola News Journal" on the newspaper's blog at http://pnj.com/). The Pensacola Journal, its research indicates, became a daily in 1898.--E. Kesse, University of Florida Digital Library Center.

The daily news. February 2, 1900, Image 1

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Daily News and Pensacola Evening News

Pensacola is the seat of government for the westernmost city in the westernmost (Escambia) county of Florida. Since the colonial period, Pensacola has been an important naval port and economic center. By 1889, it was one of Florida’s four largest cities, with a population exceeding ten thousand. The Pensacola Daily News began publication in 1889. The editors pledged to "be Democratic, conservative but yet sufficiently aggressive to give weight to [the Daily News’] remarks." By March 1897, the Daily News had increased its circulation to 1,500. The Pensacola Journal, begun as a weekly, remained its main competitor.

Among the bigger stories the Daily News covered was the 1891 dedication of the Confederate Monument in Lee Square and the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Pensacola’s Gulf Coast port, like others in Florida, hosted forces bound for Cuba, among them Theodore Roosevelt. In the years that followed, Pensacola continued to expand. 1908 saw the completion of a new Spanish Renaissance City Hall. Around this time, the Daily News was followed by the Pensacola Evening News. The exact year of the transition is uncertain as the Pensacola Evening News continued the numbering of its predecessor. The earliest verified edition of the Pensacola Evening News dates from April 6, 1908.

In 1910, when its population reached 23,000, Pensacola erected its first skyscraper--the ten-story American National Bank building, constructed the San Carlos Hotel, and raised a wooden bridge across Bayou Texar. By 1912, Pensacola had twenty-one miles of paved streets. The first modern hospital opened in 1915, and by 1924 the city’s fire department was entirely motorized. In that same year, the Pensacola Evening News merged its operations with the Pensacola Journal then under the leadership of John H. Perry. For the next six decades, the two papers continued to report the city’s news, the Journal in the morning and the News in the evening.